All Posts by Cathy Vandewater

It's really frustrating applying to jobs on the internet. You spend
a lot of time poring over your cover letter, reworking your resume,
Googling the right person to address your application to (and
making sure you've got their name right), and then waiting days,
weeks, and even months for a response that often never comes.
That's why we have really mixed feelings about the 3,000-word
"advice" email that one company sent its 900+ rejected job
applicants. Openly acknowledging that they've...
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Think it stinks to be asked for you Facebook log ins at a job
interview? Good news: so does Facebook. In a note published on the
social media website early this morning, Erin Egan, the Chief
Privacy Officer, Policy makes it clear that he doesn't really
appreciate employers undermining all the work Facebook has done to
give users privacy control. He also sternly warned employers
against accidental viewing of "protected group" information which
could lead to legal trouble. Of course,...
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Maybe this is the real reason employers have been asking job
candidates for Facebook passwords: they want to make sure you're
not a pain in the butt to work with. Pyschology researcher Soraya
Mehdizadeh conducted a study of 100 college students, using their
log in frequency and duration and activities like photo sharing and
status updates to predict how narcissistic the Facebookers were
offline. Using the Narcissism Personality Inventory and
Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, the study then...
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Here's some depressing news: Bloomberg recently compiled 2010
census data to discover that the only women who out-earned men last
year (per dollar) were shining shoes, house sitting, and parking
cars. Oh, and ceremoniously handing rich people letters on entrée
platters: female butlers made $1.02 for every $1 men earned. But as
for everybody else, here's a quick breakdown: Lawyers Female
lawyers earned pretty well over all, making a median salary of
almost $98k in 2010-but compare that to...
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﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿﻿Much talk has been generated by all the positive
employment news--recently capped off with the BLS's report that
major employment gains were made in professional and business
services, healthcare, and leisure and hospitality, and marketing in
February. Altogether, theUSsaw a total of 227,000 jobs added
throughout the month, despite a steady unemployment rate of
8.3. Yet a look at the long-term gains and losses in
jobs paints a grimmer picture of the new economy. A sea change...
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Ah, Spring. A time of new beginnings and vigorous cleaning. We can
smell the sunshine and Pinesol already! But as you flip your
mattress and give your walls a sponge bath, don't forget a key area
to re-evaluate: your job search. If reported job gains from the BLS
can be believed, things are improving. It's been a hard winter, but
the light is visible at the end of the tunnel, and it's all
natural, Tulip-nurturing sunbeams. So leave your past efforts
behind: this Spring is all about...
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An article in the New York Times today about jobseekers taking
formal courses and workshops on social media raises an interesting
question: just how valuable are social media skills? Is Facebook
know-how worth investing a few credit hours at your local college
and the cost of tuition? Do the benefits of a Twitter account
outweigh the annoyance of begging your tech-savvy niece to set up
one up for you? Of course, that depends. You've increasingly heard
that social media's a job skill, and...
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When Facebook first blew up, so did fear of professional
repercussions. While the Id side happily tagged ourselves in
flattering cocktail party photos and "liked" our favorite albums,
the Superego fretted about the beer picture in our hand, or the
explicit lyrics in that Lil Wayne song. Comments from friends were
also a liability, what with their curse words, references to
less-than-wholesome activities, and links to raunchy content or
videos. But, quite comfortingly, a new study has...
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We've talked before about using social media tools to find a job.
But usually, that means the Big Three: Facebook, Twitter, and
Myspace. Just kidding! Of course, the (arguably) best site for job
search social media is LinkedIn. And it's undoubtedly the best
place for explicating posting your resume and qualifications, since
you're not likely to have any photos of you drinking nearby, and
you have more than 180 characters to describe your job duties. But
what about Pinterest, a newly,...
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Ever feel like you spend all your time in the conference room?
Well, if you're high up on the executive food chain, you might. A
new study of CEOs shows that 18 of their average 55-hour work weeks
are spent at roundtables-and a mere 6 spent at their actual desks,
working alone. The rest of the work week breakdown is as follows: 2
hours on phone calls, 2 on conference calls, 2 on public events, 5
on business meals, and 20 on "miscellaneous," which includes travel
back and forth between...
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